Afterwords // Anne Carson for Seattle Arts & Lectures
Two takes on Carson & Friends’ performance Tuesday, May 13 at Town Hall by Jack Chelgren & Cali Kopzcick. Two takes because how many eyeballs did you wish you had that night? The Maximalist: Anne Carson at Seattle Arts & Lectures by Jack Chelgren, Special Projects Intern During the Q&A after Anne Carsonâs performance at Seattle Arts & Lectures last week, someone in the crowd asked Carson if sheâd ever considered translating the New Testament. Carson cooed wistfully, thought for a moment, then replied, âNoâthe New Testamentâs too minimalist for me.â A warm chuckle rose from the crowd, filling the dim, vaulted ceiling of Town Hall. But for all the ironical self-parody of her answer, itâs conceivable that Carson wasnât really joking. She is an artist and intellectual whose work consistently shatters our rote expectations of poetry, smashing divisions of ancient and modern, lyric and academic, fictional and historical, personal and mythical with the zeal of Hektor chopping down the Achaian ranks in Homerâs Iliad.